Surviving
by jessiloufrank
Summary: A story of survival in the years after a zombie outbreak.
1. Chapter 1

A solitary figure stood at the fence looking out over the wasted countryside. She reflected over all she'd been through in the ten years since the virus spread. Some said virus, some said radiation no one knew for certain what caused the dead to rise and some didn't care. They rose, that was all that mattered.

First the cities fell, the overpopulated areas. It wasn't just the zombies to blame. The gangs were always fighting for turf. Some of them saw the zombies as a good distraction and took advantage to take over new territories. They caused the deaths of their own and civilians alike, who then rose causing the zombie horde numbers to swell.

Families fought to protect their homes, just another turf war, as if they had become gangs. They turned against their neighbors and friends when they should have united as one to fight off the dead. That is why the living lost in the beginning. The zombies had one driving force, hunger. The living were bound mostly by fear, hatred, greed, and anger.

There had been mass confusion in the beginning. Many different reactions from the ones who wouldn't give up there homes, to the ones who wanted only to seek help and the ones who fled. Mel wasn't in any of those groups. She was amongst the ones who were travelling when it went bad.

Her family had been on the road. Her father had just gotten a motor home and her family was on what was to be her last vacation before she went off to college.

They started hearing reports on the radio of a virus or some sort of contaminant causing people to go crazy and attack people. Then the reports changed to the dead rising. Her father thought that was crazy. Until he was attacked at a filling station. He turned fast and in an instant everything in her world changed. they locked him out and her mother took off like a bat out of hell with her little brother Steve, who hadn't stirred from his nap, and herself.

It seemed as though they drove for hours and hours. Her mom seemed to be driving aimlessly as if not sure where to go, not sure what happened was real. Mel wasn't even sure what happened. She sat and thought as they passed miles and miles of the dead walking. Pounding on the RV whenever it slowed down, attacking anything that moved, anything alive. By the time her mom was too tired to drive she knew she had to step up and take charge.

She had seen a lot of zombie movies, enough to know that they had to find somewhere safe. If they were to stop to sleep they would be over run. They had to find somewhere safe. She took the wheel. It seemed as though she had been driving ever since. Her mother let her take over things. As if she couldn't be the mom anymore.

Now she stood here at the edge of base, worlds away from that innocent 18 year old girl she was at the beginning. In the distance she could hear the moan of the undead and the shuffling as they moved ever closer. One appeared over the top of the nearest hill to where she was standing. She drew her pistol and fired. As it fell to the ground she holstered her fire arm wiped away a tear and turned back towards home.


	2. Chapter 2

Mel awoke the next morning as she did every morning anymore, checked to see that her weapon was clean and loaded, showered and dressed. She looked in the mirror at herself as she passed it. She kept her hair short these days. You just don't want to get into battle with zombies or the hostile living and give them something to yank on. That could mean death. It bothered her at first but she was used to it now. She ran her hand through her hair and walked on.

She stepped outside and surveyed the scene. She saw several people already out and about starting the day. Relieving the night watch, checking the barricades, getting on with whatever might be their assigned task. It was hard to believe that just a few years ago this was just a highway over pass, but now it was home.

The main thought that had run through Mel's head all those years ago was to find somewhere safe or somewhere they could make safe. They drove for it seemed like years, stopping only when they needed supplies or gas, picking up whatever survivors they came across. Eventually the rv was full. Some people started driving their own vehicles, trucks and utility vehicles mostly. It turned into a caravan. They started to get to gas stations that were dry. It was clear they would have to find somewhere to stay soon.

She got the idea when they were passing through a small town. She looked up as they were passing the highway. She looked up at all the abandoned cars and delivery trucks and she came up with a plan. She thought convincing the group was the hard part. She was convinced if they were up high, and they could get rid of all but one on ramp, and cut off the highway from both directions using the abandoned vehicles, blow it up or destroy it somehow they could have a defensible base. From there they could possibly spread out as more survivors came along, if more survivors came along.

Many were weary of all the travel. They just wanted a rest. Others weren't so sure but after much debate it was decided and they went to work. Even her mother perked up at the idea of stopping somewhere finally. She helped a lot with the moving of the vehicles. Some of the cars had zombies trapped inside. These were the most dangerous cars. You had to have a couple people on these cars to get them out and destroyed with minimum casualties so they worked in pairs. Casualties happened, sad painful casualties. Her mother tried getting a zombie out of a car and bash it over the head with a bat she was taken by a surprise and bitten by a child zombie that was also in the car she and her partner hadn't seen. With some quick thinking her partner pushed her over the side with the child zombie.

At first they lined up the cars, then the trucks up end to end across all of the lanes of the road in several rows staggering the lines to insure nothing could come through on both ends of the area they intended to be camp. They did the same on the on and off ramps.

Once a base camp was secure groups were organized to search the town for any survivors and usable supplies. The people that stayed behind took stock of supplies they had left and arranged the vehicles they arrived in.

As time went by a fence was put up around the perimeter including along the edge, shelters were built, crops were planted, and they even built a water tower. They found a store with weapons in it. Not just guns but bow and arrows too. The arrows weren't so great on their own if they lit them on fire and shot a zombie it worked the best.

This is the base she looked upon now. They were self sustaining now. They made sure no threat could make it inside living or dead. She thought at first surely at some point they would stop coming. As if at some point there would be too much distance between themselves and the zombies, or someone somewhere else in another base would have killed them before they got to them. There had to be other survivors that bunkered down elsewhere. Now she was sure they would not stop. They just kept coming. Like they knew they were there.


	3. Chapter 3

"Good morning Mel." It was John. She turned to look at him and he asked, "What you thinking?" John was a man they had rescued from a gas station. One of the first to join the caravan, he was now Mel's best friend.

"Morning John. I was just thinking about things" She answered.

"Like?" he asks.

"I wonder how far we could get on the highway." She responded.

"Why?" he asked.

" I don't know. I guess I'm just restless." She said.

John then asked, "So what do you want to do today?"

Mel looked at him and answered, "What we want to do doesn't really matter anymore does it? I suppose the same thing we do every day, go out gather supplies, search for survivors and keep killing those things."

"That's what I thought," he replied.

They headed over to the area they called the hanger. This area had a sort of air lock in case as they were going in or out of base and there was trouble trying to get in. Just a precaution. There had been problems early on with zombies following the cars back to base which meant more lives lost. They had to take extra precautions. So they did the same on both ends of the base so they wouldn't be stuck. They found the interstate system a good way to get around. They had to move a lot of cars out of the way when they traveled. They used these cars to block the on and off ramps when they got to them. It didn't make it safe, just safer. It kept the zombies off the interstate. To discourage the hostile living from coming up and moving the cars they removed all of the wheels and siphoned all the gas from the cars.

They got to the hangar. Inside there was a line of station wagons, trucks and suv. These were the best vehicles to use in order to load up people and supplies they might find while out and about. The teams were assembling in the hangar getting their gear together. They all wore protective padding mostly of their own making. Simply wore layers of clothing. Long sleeves and gloves all parts of there body covered in case they came into close contact with any zombies.

They went two to four people to a car and they took out five cars at a time. Then they drive to a town and pick off as many zombies from a distance as they can and then check as many buildings as possible. Sometimes they went to the same towns more than once in case they missed something or someone. They switched the direction they searched each day, one day east the next west. Today was to be a new town to the east. They would drive all the way to the first off ramp they hadn't investigated yet.

Mel walked over to the Jeep Cherokee that she and John drove and got in the driver seat. John got in beside her. She started the engine and it was off for yet another day of what used to be crazy but was now ordinary.

They drove for an uneventful couple of hours before they got to the last town they searched they had to move some cars out of the way where they had parked the cars across the interstate in order to keep the zombies from coming past where they'd been. Everyday the search ended with a new barricade as if it was the end of the road.

As they were moving the cars today, Mel got an idea. They keep traveling further and further every day. At some point they always need to head back. After they'd finished and gotten back in their cars and headed onto the next exit she turned to John and said, "Maybe we need could set up another base camp."

From the author: I apologize for taking so long in writing this chapter, I kind of knew where I wanted to go with it but I couldn't get it quite right. -Jessica


	4. Chapter 4

John turned to Mel and asked, "What for?"

Mel answered thoughtfully, "We've been at this day after day for years. These day trips get longer and longer. We are going to have to face the fact that we are going out farther and farther. We can no longersecure entrances to the highway in a days time and make the trip back and forth. If we had smaller baseson either side of our main base, we could cut down on the trips and save gas."

"Makes sense," John answered. "I suppose we could build a base on either side about halfway from home and the farthest point out. Base is getting crowded anyway. Going to have to have more volunteers and we are going to have to put it to a vote."

"Sounds like a plan, " said Mel.

"What about Steven?" John asked.

"I don't know. I just might bring him with us." Mel answered. Steven was now 18 years old. An old 18. He had been forced to grow up very fast with losing his father and mother. He had been trained to fight. They trained all the children to fight.

With that the car fell silent. It seems like these days all their conversations ended this way. A comfortable silence after all they had to say had been said. It gave them time to focus on what Had to be done. Shortly after they got to their destination. All the cars stopped in a line end to end on the end closest to home. They got out of their vehicles grabbed their weapons and got to work. There seemed to be more and more zombies the further they went out. They were getting closer to a big city.

They shot the closest ones first and slowly advanced until all the lose zombies were down. They took them all down without incident. It was slow going. You can't expect to go into battle and expect to get it over with fast. In order to save as much ammo as possible they needed to wait for as many of the dead to come to them as possible and put them down before moving forward.

They moved to the closest cars and checked them. Mel and John got to a car that had a zombie inside. John walked up to the door and looked in the window. The zombie clawed at the window teeth gnashing. Mel came up and stood a few steps back. John had his hand on the door handle. Mel counted to three gun raised and pointed at the zombie. John opened the door and Mel fired hitting the zombie square between the eyes.

John cringed " These things are starting to smell."

Mel shrugged, "What do you expect, they're dead." They heard more shots from the other teams. They pressed on. Stopping to fire when they got to more walkers. This was sweep day, they go through and kill everything that moves that shouldn't then move as many cars as possible to keep zombies from getting in that would make reinforcing the area the next day a tougher job than necessary.

When they were halfway to the other side, Mel heard a scream. She looked in the direction of the Scream and saw Stephanie holding her wrist which was bleeding as Frank was hitting a zombie with a baseball bat and shouting profanities. Stephanie quickly wrapped her wrist up and said, "I'm okay," over and over again. Frank turned to her and shouted, "Pull it together honey, we still got work to do." She shook her head coming back to reality and got back to task.

Mel looked at John who gave her a knowing look and they got back to work. She was going to turn, they all knew it. She was going die and turn. It was different for everyone how long it took. When they were on the job it was best to keep injured working for as long as possible. The partner would take care of them when the time came if they died while they were still working. In a few cases people just wanted to end it, when they couldn't cope but most knew that their giving up right away could mean the deaths of more people.

There were no more casualties that day. Stephanie made it until the zombies were all dead and then asked frank to do the task. They moved as many cars as possible and headed back home for the night.

When they asked for a meeting which would be held first thing in the morning. With that Mel finally laid down to rest.


	5. Chapter 5

They held the community meeting the next morning. The biggest advocates for the new base were the

ones who had been going out on the runs. These were the ones who constantly went out and put there lives

on the line to help get supplies and make life as it had become more bearable and comfortable.

Frank spoke up first. "When Steph and I started going out it was to get our minds off of the mess the

world had become, how everything we'd been working for, our whole lives went to shit. Our kids, gone.

Our parents, gone. Everything was gone. Going on the runs kept us sane. Now it seems all we do is drive.

Steph has been," pauses, "Sorry, had, she had been a little down lately. Too much thinking with all the

driving. To much time to think!" He broke down crying.

"I don't think too much thinking was the problem." A man near the front of the assembly spoke up.

"That's enough Mason!" John growled at him. Mason was amongst the oldest of the survivors. He

resented the fact that Mel and John were the leaders that they had become. Everyone naturally wanted

to follow them, particularly Mel. He thought their leader should be a man, namely him. He hadn't wanted

to stop and, 'play house' as he saw it. He wanted to stay on the road. He thought moving was the safest

way. Once the set up base he grudgingly changed his mind. Then they started going on the runs. He thought

that was a dumb idea as well, until he saw some of the loot they were bringing back. So of course he thought

this second and possibly third base was a dumb idea. It was as though any idea that wasn't his idea to start

with was a dumb idea.

"I was merely pointing out if her mind was on her job she would be here now instead of being worm

food." Mason defended.

"You son of a…" Frank started and charged towards him several people near by held him back.

Mel finally spoke up, "Don't Frank, It's not worth it. If you don't want to help, Mason, you don't have

to. We only need a majority to vote yes." She looked at the others, " Who's for it?" She paused and a

majority of the hands went up, "And against?" A few hands for no. Mason's pals. "Looks like it's

happening Mason. You'll just have to deal."

With that the discussion turned to where. It was decided that instead of halfway, the new base would be

at the furthest point out. The spot they cleared the day before. This way they wouldn't lose any ground. They could camp

in between if necessary when moving supplies. After all the decisions were made the meeting broke up and people went

about making preparations for setting out to make the second base.

Mel and her brother Steven had been living in the family camper so they didn't have any packing of their own to do.

They just loaded it up with supplies. John had been sleeping in a tent, but would pack that up with them and they were ready to hit the road.


	6. Chapter 6

It took a few days to get everything together. Finally Mel and the rest of the crew were headed out to start work on the new base. This is the first time Steven had left the home base since they settled

there. As they drove down the highway toward the new base he silently looked out the window. He could see all The work that his sister and the others had done to keep him and the rest safe. There

were walls erected in places where the highway went lower with fences on top and fences where the highway was raised. He was amazed at how much work they had put into it and wondered how

many of the others who hadn't been out in a while realized how much they'd done. He shifted his gaze to the front and looked at Mel and John as if seeing them for the first time. Seeing what they'd

done was different than hearing about it. He had a new found respect for them.

"Mel?" Steven asked.

"Yes Steven?" She replied.

"When do we build these walls, I mean, we move right in, when do the walls come in?" Steven asked.

Mel replied, "Usually we secure the ramps then we work backwards building the wall back to the last ramps. This is going to be the same principle except we have to make a base not just a check point.

We won't be heading back to home base any time soon."

"Oh," Steven said, "I didn't realize, how much there was to do. So we won't be going out on any supply runs to any towns or anything?"

"No, I probably won't take you out for that any time soon even if we do go. Your job will be to look after the little ones." Mel answered. "Oh," Steven said, slightly disappointed.

"Mel spared a glance to the rear view mirror at Steven, "Is there something you need that we don't have?"

"No, I was just hoping for some action." Steven answered.

"Oh, there will be plenty of that, don't worry about it." John spoke up.

The rest of the ride was silent. When they got to the new base they parked there vehicles in a formation to make a sort of make-shift fort with the doors facing inward. They would stay that way until

the new base was up and running. Walls and all.

Everyone knew what their assignments were once they got there as that had all been decided at the meeting. Everyone got out of their vehicles and began to unload and get right to work. A communal

fire-pit was made in the middle of the vehicles for cooking and for gathering in the evenings. Then they started dinner. Others patrolled the far end of the area then put up a temporary fence around the

outside of the cars. After the camp was up and dinner was enjoyed everyone laid down to sleep. It was going to be a hard job getting the next base up and they needed the rest.

From the Author: Sorry if this chapter seems like a cop-out. Sometimes the ideas are in my head but I don't get them down in the story. I thought it needed a little clarification.


	7. Chapter 7

Mason sat drinking his morning coffee in his usual spot in a chair by his front door.

From this spot he could look over the whole base and see all that occurred. He turned his head over

toward where Mel's camper had been only a few months ago and shook his head disapprovingly.

"Good riddance to them." he muttered under his breath. It seemed like years since the group had left.

Not long enough in his opinion. They could go off on their fools errand though. When they came back, if

they came back, things would be different.

He thought back to before the world changed. He thought he'd won the lottery when it went bad. All

his troubles solved. When the monsters came being humiliated by his wife cheating on him with his boss

and then being fired and his children hated him. These things were the least of his troubles. He wished

for a solution for his problems so many times, then finally one day the monsters came and it was every

man for himself.

When they got in his house he was upstairs, himself and his wife, his son Seth was away at college and

his daughter Heather was with friends. They got in and proceeded to come up the stairs. Mary kept

screaming in terror the whole time. They just kept coming and she kept screaming. Finally he had

enough, he shoved her down the stairs into the outstretched arms of the advancing monsters. Still she

screamed. It provided him enough time to make it out onto the roof of the garage, open the sky light, drop

onto the roof of his Durango, get inside the vehicle, open the garage door and drive away. Through all

that he heard Mary screaming as she was being ripped apart. He saw one of the things fall to the garage

floor thought the sky light as he pulled out of the drive. He laughed and drove away.

He didn't bother looking for his kids. They weren't his problem anymore. They could find their own

way, or not he didn't really care. He survived by taking what he needed from people he encountered along

the way. He refused to be pushed around ever again. Then one day he got in a tough spot and Mel and her

rag tag group of traveling survivors came along and helped him out. Then they wanted to settle down and

play house, and now they wanted to spread out.

He still thought the new bases were a dumb idea, but it got them away from him, kept them from pushing him around.

While they weren't looking he'd make this base his and he'd make the others pay. They thought they called the shots, but they would see.

Heck the ones left behind were already looking to him to lead the way.

Mason was deep in thought and didn't notice when Sam walked up to him and said, "Mason, Mason! Some survivors just showed up."

Startled out of his thoughts, Mason looked at Sam and asked, " Well, are they infected?"

Sam answered, "They're in rough shape but they seem to be healthy."

Annoyed Mason asked, "Did you check them?"

"Yeah, I didn't see any bites." Sam replied.

"How many?" Mason asked.

"There's four of 'em, three men and one woman." Sam answered. " I came and got you as soon as I

could, just like told me, I came and got you cause you wanted to know if anyone came, and you said to

come get you so I came and got you, just like you said."

Mason smiled and said, " You did good, real good, thanks Sam." Mason thought to himself, what a good little lap dog.

He insisted on greeting all newcomers himself to see if they were his kind of people. Three men in the group was already strike one.

To have survived this long they would have to be strong men, probably smart too to have survived this long. He didn't want anymore

troublemakers undermining him and making him look weak. People to give other people ideas on how to make life like it used to be and

keep him down. He took a final drink of his coffee and followed Sam to the gate.

When they got to the gate he saw a group of four people being checked out by the medical crew, or the closest thing they had to a medical crew here.

There was one woman and three men just like Sam said. Strong looking men like he thought, so strike walked up to them and said, "Good morning all."

"Hi, " they men replied. The woman looked at him kind of funny but said nothing.

"Where might you all have come in from?" He asked.

One of the men spoke up, "We'd been staying in my Gramp's old farmhouse. It had a wall around the property and it was pretty safe for years, but lately we've

been getting swarmed a lot. I guess they got all piled up somewhere outside the wall cause they got over it and were banging on the walls mostly on the one side.

So we got out and made a run for it."

Mason saw a mark on his arm and asked, " What's that, you been bitten?"

"No, I cut my arm, we had to climb out of a window. It all happened so fast, guess I wasn't paying attention."

"We can't be sure, and if we can't be sure we can't be safe, so sorry pal, can't let you in, any of you," Mason told them. He was overjoyed, he didn't like this guy, he'd already decided.

"Wait, what?" one of the others spoke up.

"You can't stay here," Mason said, "we don't know if you're infected. You could kill us all. I just can't take that chance, you'll have to go. There's kids here."

They looked shocked. "You can't just turn us away, at least give us some supplies, a fighting chance! Please!"

"I'm not heartless," Mason said, "If you go down that ways awhile there's another colony, perhaps they'll take you in, if you don't turn before you get there. Now you'll have to go.

We have things we have to get done today." Mason turned to Sam and instructed, " You heard me, turn them out."

"Yes boss," Sam replied. He turned to the newcomers as Mason walked away and said, "You heard the man, you can't stay. Just follow the highway that way and you should be relatively

safe." Sam corralled them back toward the gate.

Once they were outside the gate one of the men turned to the woman and noticed she was upset, "What is it Heather?"

"Mark, I can't be sure, but I think that man was my father." She replied.


	8. Chapter 8

It was never the same dream. It always started the same with the events of his life since the day he met Sabrina. The day his life started. He saw flashes of the past laced with the voice of Sabrina echoing over and over the words, "I love you John." followed by his voice replying "I love you too." The day they met, their first date a movie and then ice cream at the Dairy Queen., the wedding, each child brought into the world, each and every event in a whirlwind until they all ran together. More and more voices echoed through the dream, now each child, "I love you Daddy!" and his reply, "I love you my sons!"

It always ended on that day.

John was mowing the lawn, his wife Sabrina was cleaning house and their three young children,

Johnny, Petey, and Mikey were all playing on their playground when what looked to be a homeless man shambled into the yard near the children. He attacked Johnny, Petey and Mikey let out a

battle cry and pounced on the attacker trying to pry him off Johnny as he bit him. John looked towards the house and saw Sabrina sprinting towards the playground. He looked in that direction at the horror he hadn't heard over the roar of the mower. She shouted at him to come help as more crazed people set upon the children. Johnny was up and looking at him blankly, his guts were spilling out. He left the mower running and ran to save his family but never got there in time He woke up sobbing.

The dream came less frequently now but it always felt as if it was only yesterday. He never felt more lonely than after dreaming of his family.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door, then a voice. "John? Are you up?" It was mel.

He answered, "I'm awake. Be right out." He got up and dressed as he tried to compose himself. He thought of Mel. How she saved him after his family was gone and he was alone. He got pretty wild. He wanted to kill them all. He went into his house and prepared to wage war against the Zombies. He put on what he could to protect himself, he had some hunting gear. His father used to take him every weekend and he still went out every once in a while, he was going to take his boys when they were older now that would never be. He gathered everything he could carry got some water and some power bars and set out on foot to take out as many as he could before they could get him.

He fought for what seemed like days, weeks even until he ran into Mel and her family just driving down the road like they were on vacation. He was surrounded, he heard the sound of a car engine, it was the camper. It stopped, he saw the head of a girl pop out of the driver side window taking stock of the situation. Then she yelled, "Hey, Meat Bags! Over here!" They turned when they heard the noise. She tossed something from the window and a few stumbled towards the camper. He took his opportunity to take a few out while their attention was diverted and tried to get away. It seemed like ages since he'd seen and uninfected human. He felt hopeful for the first time since his family was gone.

The camper took off and led the zombies away as he hid perched on a tree branch. He dozed off for a while then woke to a voice asking, "Uh, mister, you want a ride or do you want to live in that tree until they come back?"

"I guess I'll take the ride." He replied sleepily.

"Alright, come on in. I'm Mel," The girl said as she offered her hand.

He got in the camper and saw an older lady and a boy. Mel introduced the lady as her mother, Barbara, and her Brother, Steve. Those early days on the road he wanted to stop and kill every one of those things they passed but Mel convinced him that wasn't the smart thing, they didn't have the resources for that. They could make their stand one day, but they would have to prepare first. He shook his head thinking, Mel is one heck of a lady.

If the world hadn't changed and he'd lost his wife a different way he might have asked Mel out for a drink or to a movie, but you just didn't do that anymore. The bars and theaters are all closed. He didn't even know if she'd be interested in him if he asked so they remained friends and that's all. He finished dressing and stepped outside of the door.

"What's up?" He asked.

"We have company." Mel replied. "They say they came from another camp down the road that turned them away."

" Mason." John said.

"Who else?" Mel asked.

Without another word they headed to the gate. When they got there they saw 4 people being checked out for signs of infection.

When they got closer Mel asked, "Are they clear?"

"They are, except this scrape on this one." said Mike one of the medical people. "Mason probably assumed it was a bite no matter what they said."

Mel, John and Mike exchanged a knowing look. They weren't surprised as they heard the story the four of them, Mark, Heather, Scott and Pete, told them of how they escaped their refuge in the farm house, came to the main base camp and their encounter with Mason. The last bit of the story was a shock to them, that Mason was Heather's father, but she hadn't been sure until she heard his name but now she was. Just as sure as she had been that he wouldn't come looking for her or her brother all those years ago.


	9. Chapter 9

Mason shook his head and muttered under his breath, "Another idiot meeting with these imbeciles."

Janey, one of the twenty-somethings, continued speaking, "Can't we just go for a drive and see how the new base is coming? I just want to see. It's got to be coming along pretty nicely. I bet it's pretty rad. I really want to see. I bet they need supplies, can some of us just go and take some stuff they might need and go see it? I'm sure other people want to see. Anybody?" She looked towards Mason.

A smile formed on his face as she looked at him. "So trusting," he thought. He looked around as some nodded or spoke in agreement that they would like to go as well. After a brief pause he spoke, " I doubt they need supplies, they would send someone for them if they did. They should be farming and gathering by now. Why not take a picnic lunch? It's quite a long drive. You can head out tomorrow morning in one of the vans. We could start taking trips out there every couple weeks if it goes well. You know provided they properly secured the section of road between here and there. Might be a nice change of pace. People are feeling antsy here I bet." There were murmurs in agreement and head nods. "Sam here can drive," he finished patting Sam on the back.

Sam looked at Mason in surprise and exclaimed, " Really Mason? You mean it?" Sam's expression was uneasy. Mason nodded and Sam said, " Of course I can Mason."

Mason continued, "So is it agreed? Should people go? Vote?" The vote was unanimous to send the party. They decided who should go by raising hands again. Only Eight people wanted to go including Janey and Sam was nine. The plan was to head out first thing in the morning. With that the meeting came to a close.

At sunrise Mason stopped Sam as he was walking towards the van. "Got a minute Sam?" Mason asked.

"Sure, Mason." Sam answered.

Mason looked at Sam intensely for a minute and finally said, " I want you to take them out halfway, and I don't care how, but you make sure you are the only one to come back."

Sam was stunned for a moment and then nodded, "Whatever you say Mason."

"Stay out there for a couple days and come back looking like you'd been attacked and tell everyone there is no other base. It was destroyed somehow." Mason told him. "I don't care how you dispose of the party, I just don't want to see them back. It's important it looks real."

"I understand Mason," Sam replied and walked off with a determined look on his face.


	10. Chapter 10

Janey had been taking a nap during the ride. She awoke as the van came to a halt.

As she woke up and looked around she saw Sam exiting the van with a nervous shifty look on his face.

People in the van began to get out and take out the boxes that contained the supplies for lunch.

She made her way out of the van and began to help with lunch preparations. She couldn't shake the

feeling that something wasn't right with Sam.

Lunch was set out and people began to eat. It was a pleasant atmosphere for most. Some predicted what

they would find at the new base and what it would be like. They were excited to see their friends after such a

long time.

Janey sat and ate with her friend Logan and said to him in a low voice, "There is something not quite

right here. I get this terrible feeling. Sam is acting so strange."

Logan rolled his eyes thinking, silly Janey, the said "Sam always acts strange, especially when Mason isn't

around. Don't be so paranoid."

"I'm serious, Logan!" She replied urgently, almost too loud then continued, "Just look at hi, he's extra shifty today."

"Okay, I'll keep alert, since I was going to do that anyway, being outside and all." Logan replied.

Janey felt a little better after that and relaxed a bit. She still kept her eye on Sam who stood over to the

side on the lookout. He soon made a move back towards the group.

Sam cleared his throat to speak, "It's such a nice day, why don't we relax here a while. Maybe have a look around,

or take a nap if you want. There's no rush, plenty of day light and all."

Janey watched Sam as he wiped a some nervous sweat off his forhead. She nudged Logan who then shrugged.

Logan stood up and stretched. He looked down at Janey and reached out his hands for her and said, "Why don't we take

a walk. It's cramped in that van."

Janey took his hands and stood, "Sure, but let's go this way." She turned in the direction the van had been travelling earlier.

Logan shrugged and followed.

Sam looked at the group. They had agreed to his suggestion. Four of them laid down on their blankets for naps, and the other

four were walking around. He said to himself, "This will be easier than I thought." He smiled and giggled to himself. He walked back

over to the van to get what he needed to begin his plan. As he took his duffel bag from the van he rummaged around for what he needed

and finally pulled from it the gun and silencer that Mason had handed him early that morning. He turned back towards the four sleeping

and slowly walked toward them, keeping the gun concealed as he walked towards them just in case one stirred. He muttered under his breath,

"I hope none of them others come back before I kill these guys."

He placed the gun against the chest of each of them one by one dispatching them. With that finished he had only the other four

to worry about. Mason had given him a plan to follow, he was going to follow it as best he could. Mason would be so proud. He removed the

the silencer from the gun and he turned to go towards the others, behind him he heard the moans of the four dead ones coming back to life.

As he started around the van he let out a yell as if being attacked and started running around the van. As he got around it he saw them turn

towards him in suprise.

Janey and Logan had walked pretty far before they heard Sam yell and turned to see him running with a gun his hand.

They heard him yell something but couldn't hear what he said but the other two could and turned towards them and began running and called

out to them, "Zombies got in, they attacked the others, heading this way, RUN!" They looked back and sure enough, the four who had been napping

were slowly making their way around the van towards them with the vacant stare of the dead in their eyes.

Sam caught up with them and they all stopped for a minute to catch their breaths. Sam spoke, "I don't know where they came from, there must be

a hole in the perimeter somewhere. You guys take off that way and I'll stay here and take care of these guys. Hopefully there aren't any more breaches.

I'll come for you with the van when it's safe."

Janey looked at Logan and the other two. All with sad looks on their faces as they turned towards the new base sparing one last glance

back at their dead friends shambling towards them. She didn't see any others, just those four. She glanced at Logan and nodded, he nodded back at her.

Something told her they better get to the new base before Sam came back for them.  



	11. Chapter 11

Heather was on duty at the gate. It hadn't taken long to get settled into the camp. She had to fight through many of those things to get this far and any able body was appreciated on guard duty. She looked out towards the way she'd come in. Not surprised to realize would come to be that way. She shook the thoughts off. He had never been there for her before paying as little attention to her as he could. It wasn't surprising that he didn't even seem to recognize her.

She saw movement in the distance and grabbed her binoculars. There definitely people coming towards the base. She looked around and saw Frank and yelled out to him, "Hey, Frank, I think I see movement out there!"

"On the highway? Really? Living or dead?" Frank was surprised as they weren't expecting anyone and the never saw zombies coming from that direction but he headed up to her perch to get a look.

"Right there, and they are coming fast too." Heather pointed out in the direction she saw them coming. "I think they're alive, they are moving too fast to be dead," She added.

"Well I'll be damned," Frank exclaimed, "It is little Janey and Logan." Frank climbed down from the look-out and headed for the gate to let them in giving an order to Mark to get word out that someone had arrived.

Janey, Logan and the other's got to the gate out of breath from all the running.

"Where'd you guys come from? Or why are you here…I mean we weren't expecting anyone, did something happen?" Frank kept asking the obvious questions as he checked them out and they continued to calm down from the ordeal.

Janey finally caught her breath and spoke up, "We decided to come out here and see how everyone was doing and Sam was driving, we got part way and stopped for lunch. The four of us took a walk while the rest of the group took naps as Sam had suggested. Then a little while later Sam came around the bus screaming bloody murder saying there were zombies on the highway that attacked the others and we should run. We ran and ran and ran until we got here. It's weird though, we didn't see any other zombies, just our friends, only our friends."

"There had to be other zombies, they were just slower," Logan said.

"No, it seems set up, like they planned it. Sam's been acting weird all day." Janey argued.

"You think Sam took a group out only to kill them and leave them?" Frank asked. "That sounds a little far-fetched."

Just then Mel and John walked up and John spoke up, "Sound like Mason's doing to me."

Mel just shook her head in disbelief, "After the arrival of those four I'll believe anything, his own daughter turned away. " Mel gave Heather an apologetic look.

Frank spoke up, "So does that mean the other base is compromised? Should we do something because if he's gone this far, all those people could be in danger?"

"It's definitely something to think about." Mel answered. "We will have to think about how to go back to check on them. We don't know how bad it is, and if we approach it wrong, it could be bad for everyone."

Janey kept repeating as the reality of the situation finally hit her, "I know it was planned. I just know it. There were no other zombies. Sam had to have killed those four." Logan took her in his arms and hugged her trying to comfort her.

Logan whispered, "It's ok, I believe you. We're safe now."

"Let's get you guys back and see about getting you some food and a place to sleep," John spoke up as he and Mel led the group back to camp. They had already checked to see they had no injuries so they didn't appear to be a danger.

The next morning they sat around the table by Mel's camper still mulling over what to do.

"I just don't know how to approach it," Mel said.

"Maybe we don't. I never felt in danger while we were there, maybe he won't hurt anyone." Logan said.

"I don't know if we should leave it alone on a maybe. Maybe it was an accident, maybe there were zombies. I think first we need to send out a party to check the highway for breeches, at least as far out as the picnic site from yesterday." Mel said.

John spoke up, "Whatever we do, we have to proceed with caution. Not only if we go back, but in case he gets delusions of grandeur and decides to attack us. Perhaps we don't go further than the picnic site until we can get better fortified on this end."

Mel thought for a minute, "Sounds good, until we got out a little further and get better fortified and come up with a plan to check out the other base to see what is going on there. Then we can decide if we can let it go."


	12. Chapter 12

After waiting a couple of days hiding out on the highway in the van, Sam ran back to their home base. He made sure not to kill any of the zombies which required running a lot. Luckily he was a fast runner. When he got in sight of the gates he began to yell and the gates were quickly opened.

Sam ran inside and screamed, "Quick! Close the gates! Zombies got up on the highway!"

"What?" A man asked, "How is that possible?"

"I don't know Dan! I just know they got up here and they got up here and they are after me and they got all them others that were with me!" Sam replied still yelling.

Murmurs were heard from the people gathering around to see what the commotion was about: _What? I thought we were safe!? What do we do? Are we all gonna die?_

Then there was a cry from the look out, "Look! I see 'em coming! I only see four though! They're from here."

"There's more than that! I swear!" Sam said still yelling, "We were attacked when we was eating! We didn't even stand a chance! We couldn't even get to the new base! It must be lost!"

There were more murmurs of fear and disbelief.

"Don't worry. They can't get in here." Mason said as he arrived.

More and more people kept arriving to see what was happening.

"It can't be! How could that be? I can't believe that, they were so strong!" Dan spoke up.

"Until we hear from them we won't know how they are. I suggest we beef up on security and hunker down here and wait. If there's zombies up there they could be lost anyway and we've lost so many already in the last days. Eight is too many. We can't risk more loss." Mason said to the group.

Heads were nodding in agreement.

Mason turned back towards his home smirking to himself thinking of how things couldn't be going better. As an afterthought he turned slightly and called out to Sam to follow him.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

It was decided that since no one could be certain to what extent the first base had been compromised by Mason's control a small party would go back to survey the situation. They decided it would have to be covert, most likely on foot and from ground level. Frank volunteered to go as did three other people including Mark who had come with Heather, Mason's daughter. That's what led them to sitting atop a building in the middle of the night. Frank was looking through binoculars at his old home. Nothing could be seen though since the sun had set too low.

"May as well get some sleep. It's too dark to see what's going on up there now." Frank finally said.

The others simply grunted and laid out their sleeping bags to sleep.

It was early in the morning when they were awakened by a loud booming sound. All four woke immediately, jumped up and turned towards the sound. They could only see a cloud of smoke back towards the new base. It wasn't that far though. It was as if someone had blown up part of the highway.

"What the heck was that?" Charlie asked.

Frank scratched his head and replied, "Not really sure, but it might be all we needed to know. Severing ties? We know that wasn't our side. So it was someone from the outside or Mason. My money is on Mason."

"Should we go have a look? Maybe it just collapsed?" asked Bill.

"Just collapsed? That was an explosion or have you forgotten what they sound like?" Irritated Charlie turned to Bill and asked.

"No need to fight, and keep your voices down. Voices carry! We are attracting attention below. Not to mention we seem to have more enemies than we thought we had. I don't relish the fact that some of them are living either. That means they have brains even if we are smarter than them, it still makes them smarter than the monsters below us and that makes them dangerous." Frank heatedly spat out as quietly as he could.

He reasoned that they should head back to the explosion and possibly back home to discuss what they have seen. They were sent out to observe, not to act on anything they might see, unless absolutely necessary. So they all quietly packed up their sleeping bags and crouched down low and headed towards the far end of the building where they'd climbed up the evening before. Frank kept checking to see if they'd been spotted from the look-out but they didn't seem to be too worried about checking out below anymore, only worried about threats on the highway. Frank glanced back towards the highway and thought he saw Sam creeping along the edge ducking down to hide from the look-out as if he was sneaking back to base. Storing the information away in his brain, Frank climbed over the roof wall onto the ladder and down.

They crept back from building to building avoiding confrontations with creatures as much as they could. When they got about even with the portion of the highway that was destroyed they stopped and found a building with a good vantage point to survey the scene. After checking it out and determining that it did not in fact collapse without the help of some sort of explosive, they headed back to their home base to report in.


	13. Chapter 13

**NOTE**: So here's where I'm stuck. I'm not sure where to go with this story now. I didn't develop the characters well at all so even I don't care about them much. I'm at a loss at how to end it or if I should scrap it and write something else. I had a place I wanted to go with it and was heading there and it disappeared. Most likely I will just re-write it. But this is what I had for the next chapter. It's just stupid dialogue but I might add to it later.

Mel, Heather and Janey sat atop a semi-trailer on the far edge of base. They had been enjoying a comfortable silence for quite some time. Mel spared a glance at each girl. They seemed to be lost in thought as they looked off in the distance.

Mel looked out too and allowed herself time to think as well. There wasn't enough time to just think about nothing anymore. It had been a couple months since Heather and her friends had arrived. In that time she had been watching Heather pretty closely since she heard Heather say that Mason was her father. As soon as they were alone John voiced his concern about the connection as well. He was concerned that Mason may have sent them as spies. He had never been one hundred percent comfortable leaving all those people behind but Mel had convinced him it would be okay. As the days went by the newcomers proved themselves as useful members of the group. When Janey and the others got there it was confirmed further that most people at the old base even knew the other group had ever been to the old base so Mason had never had a chance to enlist them into his service.

She looked over at Janey who was looking at her intently. "Why are you looking at me like that?" Mel asked.

"No reason," Janey replied, "It's just that you are so quiet today."

Mel looked down at her feet that were dangling over the side before saying, "It's my father's birthday. I've been thinking about him a lot lately. I really miss him sometimes. It's stupid, he's been gone so long."

"What was he like?" Janey asked, "It might help to talk about him."

"I can barely remember," Mel responded.

"Oh, I didn't know my father at all. He died when I was little and I was so young when this all started," Janey said sadly.

Heather remained quiet, unable to look at the others in the eye. She felt it unfair that hers was the father to survive. Janey began to fidget a bit.

Mel looked at Janey again and said, " I can tell you what I remember if you like."

"Great!" The younger replied enthusiastically. "I feel like you're my big sister anyway! It would be like hearing about my dad."

Mel smiled at the girl's silly thought, "Well, I couldn't ask for a better sister."


End file.
